


Lets take the risk

by MrsWilliamHerondale



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Harry Potter, F/M, Female Harry Potter, M/M, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Marriage Law Challenge, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Deathly Hallows AU, Powerful Harry, Sirius Black Lives, Tags Are Hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-03-10 13:18:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13502330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsWilliamHerondale/pseuds/MrsWilliamHerondale
Summary: Twenty years old and Harrie Potter remains one of the most powerful witches in Magical Britian.Even with Voldemort vanquished after the War, Britain is struggling with the loss of so many wizarding folk. The Minister of Magic is forced to make a call that not everyone agrees with but cannot disobey without consequences.How will Harrie Potter react to having one of her major choices taken away from her when everyone is looking towards her and the way she copes. After all, she is the Girl Who LivedMy take on the ‘marriage law’ fics. Just give it a read and you might be surprised.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Patria Potestas: Blood Ties](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9531536) by [JBankai89](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JBankai89/pseuds/JBankai89). 



> So hello!  
> Here is my take on the marriage law fics. It’s been floating around in my head for a little while and I’ve finally written it down now.  
> This fic isn’t going to updates regularly because I’ve haven’t written it all out yet (rest assured that I do have a set idea of where it is heading though) it is also one of my favourite pieces of writing so I’m going to take as long as I feel I need until I’m happy with the outcome. 
> 
> Things you need to know  
> 1\. Harry is female. She is called Harriet but uses Harrie  
> 2.Sirius lives  
> 3\. Harrie is extremely powerful. It’s something I don’t think gets touched enough on (and other times too much) this story will show that  
> 4\. People in the wizarding world will and can be called Lords and Ladies. This has no affect in story. It’s just a courtesy nowdays
> 
> This work doesn’t have a beta so please be lenient with errors and mistakes. I’m trying as hard as I can. 
> 
> This first chapter is also just time jumps from the past and how being female would have changed certain things in Harrie’s life (that and Sirius Black not dying) 
> 
> Anyway, this note is getting out of hand. Happy reading!

 “Harrie. Take it.” The man who had grown so close to Harrie Potter stood mere meters away from the Cup that they had been fighting for months. Stood there like it was nothing to him.

  
The Girl-Who-Lived didn’t answer Cedric, and instead walked closer to him ignoring the throbbing in her leg that spiked up violently. She grabbed her boyfriend’s hand before smiling shyly up at him.

  
“We’ll take it together. It will still be a win for Hogwarts, Cedric.”

  
Still, with hands holding they reached out together to grab the golden Cup and the seventh year bent down quickly to kiss Harrie as they touched the metal.

  
***  
The Portkey returned the way it left— with two people attached to it. But how things had changed in the hour that they had been gone. Cedric was dead and Harrie was left holding the body of her boyfriend and the Cup in her hand in the slight hope that she would get to safety.

  
As they were Portkeyed back to Hogwarts, the crowd erupted in a great cheer which quickly turned into a scream of terror.

Harrie Potter couldn’t stop sobbing as she held the Hufflepuff close to her, her green eyes trying desperately but with no avail to find something but the blank stare in Cedric’s hazel eyes.

  
“ _Don’t think about the ones you will lose in this War, Harrie._ ” The ghostly form of Cedric had said, floating around her with her parents next to him. “ _Think about the ones that will be saved. Keep fighting, and please.... take my body back. Harrie... I am so sorry.”_

  
Harrie sobbed louder as the words the seventh year had spoken rung in her ears.

  
Molly Weasley grabbed her closest child—Bill— and held him tight to her as she stared over the scene, the rest of her red haired brood moving close to her as if she could protect them from the scene that was happening.

  
Amos Diggory screamed a sob before he bolted out of his seat and ran towards  
the Quidditch pitch, his wife following him with tears streaming down her face, dodging the Professors that tried to step in her way. Nothing would stop two grieving parents.

  
Remus Lupin who had been invited by Harrie herself, was dragged down to the pitch by the pure black dog that was on a lead, his robes billowing behind him and his face deathly white. Snuffles howled as he made his way down to his goddaughter unable to transform into his human form to do something.

  
People tried to pull the Girl Who Lived off Cedric’s body, but she kept crawling back to him to crouch over his chest with her wand in her hand as if she could protect him from death. It was Dumbledore that touched her shoulder gently but with enough power to stop her going back. His face was pale but his eyes shone with pain yet also control.

She latched onto the nearest person near her and sobbed and screamed and cried while the werewolf held her soundlessly and Padfoot growling at anyone who got too close. Anyone that he didn’t trust.

  
A gnawed hand grabbed her competition robes and pulled her up from the ground- Professor Moody.

  
***  
A yellow curse shot out from Malfoy’s wand, it flew towards her feet— pushing her backwards with invisible hands. The Lord of House Malfoy didn’t want to kill her, just incapacitate her enough to get the Prophecy. The Veil of Death was close enough that Harrie would have fallen towards it if Sirius hadn’t been in the way. Knocked aside by the blunt force of the curse, the man tripped over his feet for a couple of meters and completely missed Bellatrix’s stunning curse. Crumpled at where he once stood, Harrie Potter lifted her right hand and slammed it down onto the rocky platform the Veil stood on, smashing the glass prophecy and sending little shards through her hand painfully.

  
A masked Death Eater who had been watching the scene play out with almost no contribution, held his short wand in the air at her godfather and wordlessly did a motion of complex movements before thrusting the point at his victim.  
It seemed to be a beam of a phlegm-like green transformed into a more sinister curse as it traveled. It hit the Marauder who seemed to crumple to the ground unconscious as if he had lost feeling to his legs, hitting his head on the pillar of the Veil. He didn’t move any further.

  
Bellatrix cackled like an evil witch from muggle story. “Good riddance to the last Black. He was unworthy for the name anyway.”

  
It was as it the sounds and flashes from the battle faded away as the words sunk in.

_Oh my god. He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead._

The Girl Who Lived crawled up on her hands and feet, before running toward the body. The pain in her hand seemed to disappear, the Death Eaters that seemed to follow her dared not to move closer. She could feel the rage that Voldemort had been transmitting towards her for the last year bundle into a massive clump and roar through her veins. It was as if she had an electric current in her body; her hair seemed to stand up on end with her anger. As she reached her godfather’s still body she screamed.

  
“He’s not breathing!”

  
Lupin was the first person from the Order to approach them- the wanted convict and the vanisher of the Dark Lord. The old scarred hands felt for a pulse on the neck and the wrists of Black. The werewolf pulled out his wand in a flash, and cast a stasis charm before he tried to revive the man on the ground. Shacklebolt was the next to teach them, offering aid wordlessly.

  
“Sirius Black is dead. Sirius Black is dead.” Bellatrix sang- her voice pierced the soundless bubble that Harrie had created for herself.

  
The anger and rage turned from everyone who was on Voldemort’s side, and focused on one person— a pureblood witch with her bushy hair, crazy eyes and sunken face from years being surrounded by Dementors. The pureblood witch that had just expressed her glee over Sirius being dead.

  
The Phoenix and Holly wand was out before Harrie realised, but she smiled a humourless smile and ran at the older women, her body thrumming with power and grief.

  
***  
She walked around aimlessly in the courtyard of Hogwarts. Dawn was breaking and the pale hues of blue mixed itself into the black sky. Harrie had just come from Dumbledore’s office after the content of the prophecy had been revealed to her. The world seemed to fold and collapse on its axis while one thing stayed fresh in her mind. Neither can live while the other survives.

  
She knew what it meant— but didn’t want to think about it, ignoring Gryffindor’s renounced bravery. It was the reason she had been pacing on the grounds for hours and not went up to her tower and slept or showered. Being alone with nothing to focus on gave her mind time to think. Pacing around waiting for news of Sirius gave Harrie some distraction. The cold winds that blew gave another distraction. Watching the smoke rise from Hagrid’s hut gave another. Watching the mundane, as if she wasn’t waiting to know if her godfather had died or not.

  
A lone figure appeared on the horizon, walking towards her slowly. The Chosen One stood still as she waited for it to come closer, her wand out in her hand ready. She wasn’t afraid of a duel should it be an enemy; she had fought Bellatrix and Voldemort in the last few hours and Harrie stood alive still. One of three that had walked out of the Ministry by themselves.

  
The figure walked closer; Lady Potter noticed that it was a tall person, abnormally tall yet they still had figure so thin that it was borderline sickly. She knew only one person that looked like that. Harrie ran towards the werewolf with the Headmaster’s words echoing in her mind, _Lupin has taken Sirius to St Mungos. Harriet, he might be caught but it is his only hope._

  
The former professor looked disheveled and like he could sleep for a week with bags under hazel eyes. The grey robes he wore were faded and ripped badly over his shoulder, showing one of many signs of a battle. His face has a smear of blood across it, his scars shinning sliver next to it. None of these things halted Harrie as she ran to him. But the look on his face did.

  
Her stomach dropped and it felt like her chest was caving in. “No.” It’s all that would pass her dry throat.

  
Remus grasped Harrie by the arms and crouched down to her eyesight. “He’s not dead. He’s going to be fine. But the Ministry have put Sirius under arrest. I don’t know the spell he was hit with from the Death Eater but he shouldn’t have survived it.”

  
When he pulled her in for a hug, Harrie didn’t know who is was more comfort for.

  
***  
Harrie Potter’s head spun and her scar throbbed but she ignored it all as she pulled away from Albus Dumbledore’s arm. Apparition wasn’t pleasant whatsoever; it felt like she had been pulled through a straw by hooks into her skin in a millisecond. Apparently, from what she had read, it wasn’t always like that but it always had some discomfort to it.

  
A loud pop sounded as Remus Lupin arrived next to Harrie and the Headmaster. All stayed silent while they stepped out of the Apparition station and walked into the Ministry for Magic, the sounds from their shoes echoing. Paper planes flew overhead but few people were about on the early Saturday morning. They all handed their wands in for inspection before they were allowed to pass the guard.

  
On the fourth floor, they stepped out from the elevator and walked straight to the office for the Minister— Cornelius Fudge. Dumbledore opened the door without knocking which revealed the man who lead Magical Britain with his head on his desk. To say that he had had a hard night, would have been an understatement, the man after all had just seen Voldemort in the flesh after denying it for about a year and also captured the man who had escaped Azkaban and been on the run for two years.

  
The Chosen One smiled grimly. She was about to make his life a whole lot harder in a matter of minutes.

  
Apparently Fudge had enough of visitors. “Get out! I swear to Merlin—” His eye widen as he lifted his head. “ _You_!”

  
The Headmaster helped himself to a chair, and Harrie took the other. She wore her school robes, the pair that weren’t damaged after the battle, and looked like an average teenager. But this raven haired young women who was destined to destroy the Dark Lord was nothing but average.

  
She cleared her throat before she placed her hand on the desk, her holly wand resting loosely in it. “You _will_ give Sirius Black a trial before the whole Wizengamot. Take his memories for evidence, or test him under Veritaserum but you will give him a fair trial.”

  
She heard a low groan from Remus behind her but she looked into the blue eyes of Fudge willing him to understand just this once. Yet the man in front of her ran a hand through his sparsely spread hair and let out a laugh.  
“It won’t happen. Black’s lucky he hasn’t been Kissed yet.”

  
She raised an eyebrow. “You can give him the truth serum or use the Pensieve to look at his memories—“

  
Fudge cut her off. “Dumbledore, control the girl. It’s obvious that she’s—“

  
“She isn’t mad.” Remus said quietly, his voice matter-of-factually. “Don’t even bother trying to suggest that. Harrie wasn’t lying about Voldemort after all.”

Everyone ignored the grimace that Fudge pulled hearing the Dark Lord’s name.

  
“She wants me to give the notorious mass murderer Black a trial in front of the Wizengamot. He escaped Azkaban! He killed all those muggles and killed her parents. Black will be getting the Kiss—”

  
Harrie was running on nothing but adrenaline and she felt it surge up with new power. She felt the last of her emotions drain away, the last little bit that she had been holding on for hours, all being directed at the Minister for Magic.  
She slammed her hands on the desk, rising while she spoke. “He didn’t kill my parents. He doesn’t work for Voldemort. Sirius doesn’t even have the _fucking_ Dark Mark!”

  
“Harriet.” Albus Dumbledore said for the first time in the office. It was a warning that fell onto deaf ears.

  
“You slandered my name for a year, telling the public that I was insane.” She barked out a humorless laugh. “The Girl Who Lies I was called several times. You brought hatred and pain onto a girl of 15 years of age. You didn’t listen when I told you that he’d return and instead placed the evil toad of a woman at Hogwarts who gave me this scar from a Blood Quill. Umbrigde also set the Dementors on me during the summer so I would be expelled.”

Harrie took a deep breath and pulled her hand away from the Minister. “Fudge, you owe me. You owe me for having been ignored for a year over Voldemort while you called me crazy. Do this last thing before you get kicked out office and I will let it all go. Give Sirius Black the trial he never had with everyone to witness and I’ll be the Chosen One that the public need me to be.”

  
***  
Sirius strolled out of the chamber doors with his wand in his hand, white gauze on his arm and in Azkaban robes but the man had the biggest smile on his face in almost two decades.

  
“Remus tells me I have you to thank for this, Bambi.” He laughed as he pulled her in for a hug, ignoring the camera flashes from all the reporters witnessing the moment he was finally set free.

  
***  
“It’s just got to be us.” Both Gryffindor girls said together, giving Ron a pointed look.

  
The red hair shrugged his shoulders casually and raised his hands defensively. “Look, mate, I understand but it would be helpful to have someone with more experience—“

  
“Use your brain for a second Ronald.” Hermione said with little patience. “It’s going to be a stretch to convince The Ministry that you are sick enough not to attend Hogwarts. It would be totally inconceivable to have both Lupin and Sirius away as well.”

  
Harrie handed Hermione another book- Unfogging The Future- who threw it into the largest pile of books with only a single glance. “Besides, it would be to hard for a full moon, with both of them out—“

  
Ron cut her off quickly. “I get it, alright?” The images of Remus third year when he turned into a werewolf were still clear for all of them. She saw the Weasley repress a shudder. “It will just be us on this quest.”

  
***  
The sun set beneath the trees at the Burrow. Overall, it had been a nice birthday party. Molly had spoilt her by making all Harrie’s favorite foods and giving her the old dinted watch that had belonged to her brother. (When that happened, both women tried not to cry in the arms of the other). Yet Harriet couldn’t ignore the feeling that it was the calm before a storm.

  
Someone touched her shoulder, and she whipped around with her wand out in less than a second. Sirius stood behind her, a grim smile on his face.  
They said nothing as she lowered her wand and put it in the waistband of her pants but there was a understanding. It was the grim realization of what a war does to ones self.

  
“I know what you three have been planning.” The Lord said, his voice soft as he looked at her.

  
The Chosen One considered lying, but this was Sirius Black, the only one who had given her nothing but truth in the years she had known him.

“I haven’t told Molly. And I won’t.”

  
“Thank you.” She said softly.

  
He raised his arm and put it over over her shoulders. She looked over at him to see Sirius swallow thickly. “James and Lily would kill me for letting you go by yourselves.”

  
There was nothing to say that would comfort the older man.

  
The Animagus pulled something out of his pocket and handed it over to her. “It’s another two-way mirror. I’ve got the other one and I want you to call me every couple of days while you are away. I need to know that you’ll be okay Bambi.”

  
***  
“HERMIONE!” Harrie screamed desperately, trying to ignore the sob rising in her throat. The wedding guest had made mayhem now and were either Disapperating or trying to hold the wards up against Death Eaters.

  
So far she hadn’t found Ron or Hermione in the tent and knew that they needed to leave quickly otherwise be caught.

  
A hand grabbed her wrist and she screamed, her black hair flinging around as she span and a wand that was already pointedly, ready to start dueling if needed.

  
It was Remus Lupin holding on to a red leash with Padfoot growling next to him.

  
“They are over there. You need to leave now.” Harrie had never heard the old Professors voice be so stern, but she didn’t stop to ponder it.

  
As she ran across the tent with a ripped green dress, she heard Lupin yell “be safe” and a loud dog’s bark.

  
***  
The door opened, and Remus Lupin walked into Shell Cottage with the biggest grin that Harrie had ever seen to grace his face.

Instantly, he looked years younger and more like the man in his late 30’s rather then ten years older. Sirius Black followed him in the door, scanned the room and walked over to where the Golden Trio stood and threw his arms out wide to engulf them in a hug.

“Don’t you ever do that to me again Bambi.” He murmured into Harrie’s shoulder before he pulled away from the teenagers. “Moony has news.”

The former professor straightened up as he looked around the room, and then cried aloud. “It’s a boy! Teddy Lupin.”

  
Remus flicked his wand, levitating several glasses towards everyone in the room. The Trio, Bill and Fleur gave him congratulations as he stood beaming, and Sirius smirked.

  
“You’ll be godmother, Harrie?” The new father said softly as he pulled her a away from the cluster of people. “Dora and I both think that you’re the—”

  
Sirius pushed Remus aside. “We’ll be the best godparents the world had ever seen!”

  
Harrie raised an eyebrow. “You chose him for godfather?” A grin bust across her face. “This poor child. A Marauder as father and godfather, a mother that can change her appearance in a second and the Girl-Who-Lived as the godmother. Merlin, Teddy’s got some reputation to uphold.”

  
***  
She held the mirror in her hand, the room silent as Hermione and Luna both slept on the space mattress in Shell Cottage. Dawn was seeped though the curtains, lighting the room in a pale glow of orange. Harrie Potter wandlessly put her hair up into a messy bun while she called for her godfather.

  
“Merlin, what time is it?” He mumbled while all the mirror showed was the roof of a room, painted in a pale grey. She guessed it was the living room at the Tonks’ place. The slight glimpse she had from the other two-way mirror shook as it was grabbed.

  
Sirius Black had bed hair worse then Harrie had. It stuck at all angles, yet still managed to be all over his face. The grey eyes that looked at her were still half clouded with sleep. He was also trying to shrug as shirt on while he spoke.  
“Harrie? What’s happened? Where are you—” 

  
“He saved me. Wormtail. A week ago while we were at Malfoy Manor. I should have told you when I saw you.” The words seemed to fall from her mouth in a gush. “We escaped and he caught us. Had my throat in his silver hand, and then let go. For a second, he let me go. Then the hand turned on himself. He died gasping for air.”

  
“Bambi...” the Animagus said softly, wide awake now.

  
“He deserved to die... he sold my parents out and let him kill them. But he still saved me. You knew him, Sirius, why would he?” Her voice broke, but all Sirius could do was look at her with pity.

  
***  
“Harrie Potter,” Voldemort hissed out as a smirk rose on his face. “The Girl Who Lived... come to die?”

  
She raised her head defiantly, green eyes staring down the red. The wind flicked her hair all over the place after it had fallen out from its braid, but she still stared down the man who would have killed the last thing that attached him to immortality.

  
***  
“ _No_!”

  
This scream was the most terrible because she never expected or dream that Professor McGonagall could make a sound a sound. It mingled in with Hermione’s sobs of grief, and Ron denial-filled shout and Sirius’s own cries in such raw pain.

  
“She is dead!” Yelled Voldemort, his voice not overly loud it it carried in the silence.

  
Harrie closed her eyes and tried to ignore the sounds of her friends crying ringing in her head. She had never known Professor McGonagall to let herself be ruled by emotions, and she hadn’t realized that Ron would make a sound for her identical to the cries for Fred. Hermione cried uncontrollably, the pain of losing her best friend felt so deeply.

She hasn’t thought that her godfather, a man who had gone though Azkaban, who yell so loudly in grief over her death. She didn’t think she meant so much to them- a girl who they had all seen in oversized and faded clothing stumbling her way into the world where she was a hero.

  
But here they were, with the last hope for peace and goodness— lying dead in Hagrid’s arms

  
***  
Dolohov fell to Sirius’s wand— yelling at the top of his lungs, as his chest seemed to cave in. Blood bubbled over his lips and spilt on his black robes. The Death Eater took heaving breaths as his lungs were drowning in his own blood. Sirius stood in front of him, with blank look on his face but his wand raised aloft. An Unforgivable passed the lips of Black, and Dolohov attempted to scream through the torture. It was a sudden realisation as Harrie looked closer at her godfather and saw the clean tears falling on his dirty face, that the painful death wasn’t just because Dolohov was a Death Eater.

  
It was because the man dying on the ground in the Great Hall, had killed Remus Lupin. Sirius’s best friend since first year, alongside James Potter. And now, Sirius was getting revenge. Just as Harrie would do so for her mother and father and countless others.

  
She didn’t look at him for long. She had to find Voldemort.

  
***  
The Woman Who Conquered was passed around as dawn broke fully over the castle of Hogwarts. Everyone wanted to see the woman who had died for cause, yet had come back. Everyone wanted to hug the Lady who had killed the Darkest Lord that the World had seen.

  
What seemed like countless redheads had crowded around her to weep and to see how their adoptive sister had survived. Molly Weasley held Harrie close, and so did Arthur as she sobbed over Fred’s death apologizing profusely as if it were her fault he wasn’t alive.

  
Nobody seemed to know what to do, but Kingsley Shacklebolt took up the role of leader quickly, putting a stasis charm on all of the Fallen that were in the Hall before getting groups to find the bodies of friends and foes alike that were littered around the castle. House Elves lead by Kreacher started clearing away most of the rubble to the sides of each wall, making pathways.

  
Nobody knew what to do now that the final battle had been fought.

  
The Battle of Hogwarts.

  
***  
Harriet Potter; the Girl Who Lived; The Chosen One; the Woman Who Conquered, went to every single funeral after the War.

To honor all those who had fought for her and resisted the dictatorship of Voldemort, and say her finally goodbyes. She went to every single one- all 53 of the Fallen Fifty, Professor Snape’s (which was done as directed from his will at Godric’s Hollow) and to all the Hogwarts students that had perished regardless for which side they fought for. In some cases, there wasn’t a body to bury or burn. But she still watched as the family of the deceased stood in front of a casket sobbing.

  
For Harrie, all days were hard. Every single one of them. But some she found much harder then others. Watching Remus and Nymphadora being lowered into the ground while she held their child in her arms was terrible. Seeing both Sirius and Andromeda cry with arms around the other as they watched both daughter and lifelong friend leave forever, was one of the hardest things she had seen in the weeks after the War

  
Another was at Fred’s funeral— the Weasley crew all sitting in the front row in various shades of grief. Molly who sobbed silently as Arthur held her hands, tears running down his own face. George sat next to Charlie and Percy, who watched the body of his twin emotionless with dead eyes. The dragon tamer of the family, was utterly shocked and blamed himself for not fighting the final battle and Percy sobbed loudly, carrying the blame with him for not protecting his younger brother.

The rest of the Weasleys sat almost stoic with a constant flow of tears When it time for Fred’s body to be moved out from tent and into the grave that was dug for him underneath a willow tree near the Burrow Harrie was the second person to take her place to carry it, George was the first. As the rest of the Weasley children (apart from Bill) joined in, she had felt more tears wash down her own face. Ron stood across from her his eyes rimmed red and brimming with tears, and she placed her left hand on his shoulder and watched as the rest of them did so to the person across from them, giving the support that each needed as they carried Fred Weasley to his final resting place.

  
The funerals were all hard, but she went to every single one of them. Not because she was expected to as the Woman Who Conquered, but because Harrie felt like she had a hand in all their deaths and she owed them all better.

  
***  
It took weeks for Harrie to fall asleep in bed. To fall sleep voluntarily and not when she ran her body down so much she passed out where she was. The first night that Harrie had crawled up to her bed with the intent to sleep a long fulfilling night’s rest, she had felt that the world was slowly righting itself.

  
But that’s when the nightmares began haunting her during every bit of darkness.

  
***  
“I think I’m going to go for the Mastery in Defense when classes start again at the University.” Harrie said suddenly as she pulled back her collarbone length hair into a ponytail. Teddy climbed onto her legs to follow the small blue toy car that she had enchanted to float around him. As she pushed a hair through her godson’s messy brown hair, he changed the colour of it to match her own raven hair hue.

  
Both she and Teddy were at Sirius’s apartment in muggle London, where the ex-prisoner had been living since before the war, giving Andromeda a well deserved break from raising the mischievous little Metamorphosis.

  
Harrie looked over at her godfather, who had aged considerably in the past year. The loss of the final Marauder had hit Sirius hard, and his dark brown hair had quite a few flecks of grey in it. Not enough to be extremely noticeable, but enough that Harrie has noticed. The elder man raised his wand while his face broke out in a huge shit-eating smile, summoning a bottle of Firewhiskey and two glasses. “If anyone can do it, it will be you Bambi.” The use of his old pet name for her made her grin

  
As they both toasted for Harrie’s future, Sirius said softly “They would be so proud of you, Harriet


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not today. Please not today.  
> Not on the anniversary of the Battle.  
> Please.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm actually so thankful for everyone who left a comment, a kudos, a bookmark or anything else!  
> I didn't mean to leave the story this long but time got away from me. Here is chapter 2 which is the ending part of the flashbacks/ time-jumps. Its setting up everything for the rest of the story. Sorry if it is boring then, but it is all needed.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Bill and Fleur welcomed baby Victorie Weasley into the world a year after the Battle of Hogwarts, in a bittersweet morning while they remembered the brother that they had lost. In no means had the little baby replaced Fred, but it gave the Weasleys’ the hope of a better future and new chances. Harrie swore she had never seen Molly smile as much in that previous year as she did when she held her grandchild for the first time.  
***

Hermione and Ron walked out of the fireplace after they Flooed into Grimmauld Place (the closest place to her university that she didn’t have to pay rent for) and both had grinned at Harrie widely before Ron strutted over to the arm chair in the corner and Hermione ran over to her— lifting her left hand to show a small yet beautiful jeweled ring on her fourth finger. 

Both Harrie and Ron had been a part of the Auror Department in the Ministry together almost a year before Harrie left. Sirius had gone back to work there after the War, balancing out Neville’s fighting surprisingly well. During that time, they had been a part of the group trying to find and imprison Death Eaters who had escaped after the final battle. After finding Shan Shunkpike’s mangled body one day at the home of Lord Parkinson’s, Harrie Potter had had enough of fighting and dealing with the pieces too late and left to focus on her Mastery. Ron had stayed however, moved in with Hermione (who had just started at the Ministry after finishing her final year at Hogwarts with Ginny.) and worked with George at the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes part time. After a year chasing one another, a second dancing around the other while Harrie awkwardly third wheeled and finally a year and a half of dating, Ron and Hermione were engaged.

“Congratulations! It’s beautiful, Hermione. It really is.” The ring itself was made out of silver, with a bigger diamond in the middle of it. Surrounding the center one, on either sides were small glimmering diamonds with sapphire worked in around them. The Chosen One shot a glimpse at Ron, a question in her eyes. 

The fiancée didn’t miss a thing. “You already knew didn’t you?” She asked, as she pushed her brown bushy hair back out of her face.

Both former Gryffindor’s nodded. “I asked Harrie to help me when I picked out your ring—”

“But Ron refused to look at any at the ones I suggested, saying that they weren’t perfect enough.” She rolled her emerald green eyes as she remembered it.

Both Hermione and Ron blushed slightly. It made her smile to see it. “So,” Harrie started “tell me about it! When did it happened? And was it romantic?”  
***

“You snogged Malfoy last night.” Ginny said cheerfully as she placed a steaming mug of Pepper Up Potion in her hands. 

Everything was too bright and loud, Harrie Potter thought as she grabbed the cup and buried herself under the pile of blankets on Ginny’s bed.

To celebrate Ginny getting onto the team for the Hollyhead Harpies, the red and raven haired women went out into the wizarding clubs and dance floors throughout the night. The ever powerful and mighty Woman Who Conquered didn’t remember much of the night whatsoever. Not after the third place they visited and the small pile of shot glasses around her with the small whiff of firewhiskey hanging in the air. 

But to have seen Draco Malfoy in itself was a feat considering the blond was studying hard for his Healers degree and wasn’t out in public often. She only knew this after a very awkward and tense meeting one day at the University that both former rivals attended currently, herself to catch up on her NEWT level DADA.

Harrie swallowed the drink in her hands, “did I?” She asked.

“I had to knock the reporters away from you both with my bat-boogie hex. If I get fined for that, you will be paying it.” Ginny said moments before she ripped off all the blankets from Harrie. “Mum also said that you came in at about 4 this morning and she thought it was me. Right as she was about to yell, you knocked the table over as you fell over it and swore to buy her another one before you started to cry.”

The raven haired woman, pulled herself off the bed and wandlessly spelled the curtains to fall close, and her hair to tie up into a braid regardless of its messy state. She looked down at her body and noticed the pale blue jumper she wore much too big for her.

“Whose jumper am I wearing?” She asked, even though she knew who’s it was.

“Same person who left a note from you via floo this morning.” The younger girl smirked broadly and  
had a mischievous look in her eye. 

“Ginny... what aren’t you telling me?” 

What in Merlin happened last night if Draco left me a note? Harrie thought to herself

The Chaser broke into a loud laugh. “He sent it to your place, but Sirius was there this morning and found it.”

She felt her stomach drop and a pit of dread crawl in. “Oh Merlin. Oh fuck.” She could imagine the sort of trouble that her godfather would give her about it as well. By Sirius’s standards, Harrie hasn’t done anything remotely embarrassing or funny to talk about but this... he would remember this.

Lady Potter let a string of curses leave her mouth as Ginny sat there howling. “You haven’t even heard the best bit yet...” the youngest Weasley regained enough her breath to talk. “He sent a copy of it to all of us and even to Andromeda!”

She felt her face redden considerably. What in Merlin’s name was in that letter? Harrie threw a murderous glance at the still laughing Weasley. She took a few deep breaths, knowing that she wouldn’t live this down easily. But something made her think harder. “How did you know he sent a copy to everyone...?”

As if he was called, Harrie Potter heard her godfather’s yell from downstairs at the Burrow. His loud voice could give his mother’s portrait a run for her money. “Oi! HARRIET LILY POTTER GET YOUR MALFOY SNOGGING ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW BECAUSE WE NEED TO HAVE A LITTLE CHAT ABOUT THIS LETTER.”  
***

As she walked into Grimmauld place, the Woman Who Conquered decided that she had never had such an awkward moment in her life compared to that dinner with the Malfoy family where she had been formally been introduced to Lord Lucius and Lady Nacissa Malfoy. Not even the stuttering moment she blurted out her crush on Cedric Diggory in third year in front of Fred and George Weasley and Cedric himself after watching Hufflepuff in a game of Qudditch. The memory of that had now become so bittersweet with only her and George still alive. She didn’t want to think any further on Cedric. She mourned him deeply after he had died, his death marking the start of the second war against Voldemort, but so much had happened since then it felt like such that it had belonged to someone else. That didn’t mean she had what forgotten what happened.

But Merlin had the night with the Malfoy’s been incredibly tense and awkward. Nacissa has invited Andromeda and Teddy along to make it the full family dinner affair, but it wasn’t easy to see past the man who had been ready to sell her off to Voldemort on several occasions and had kept Harrie and her friends in his cellar underneath the actual Malfoy Manor. (Thankfully, the Lord and Lady had moved into another property that didn’t house the Dark Lord less than two years ago.) But it was harder to forget the moment when Lady Nacissa was down on her hands and knees and lied straight to Voldemort’s face to just see if her son was alive. It was the same sort of never ending love that had made Lily Potter throw herself towards death with little hope of saving her child.

Somehow, it was Teddy and Draco that had saved the night. Teddy with his ever changing hair, long and black like Harrie’s own to the shorter blond hair of Lucius of all people. It was seeing the former Death Eater with his baby cousin running around the dining room so casually and relaxed that it had started an easy flow half way through the night.

She dumped her jacket and handbag onto the nearest chair in the living area in Grimmauld not at all that surprised to hear the small ‘oomph’ as it hit someone. Harrie turned her tired green eyes at the chair, to see Ron and Sirius grinning broadly at her as if they knew what the night had been like.  
“Shut up.” She said as she sat down on the couch and put her feet up next to her. “Just... shut up.”  
***

The night of her first examinations for her Mastery, Harrie Potter had her first flashback and then panic attack with all of the students and examiners there to witness.

It had meant to be an easy and informal practice duel against Professor Martin. All seventeen students that had made it so far into the course, would easily pass the practical exam. It was to show the power of spells that were used defensively, and the stamina of attacking spells which they had all been working on the past three months. 

Yet when it had been Harrie’s turn to face the Professor, the young man who had tried to torment her though the Course (thinking she was using her name and status to get what she wanted) struck publicly.

The Woman Who Conquered, had very few weak points when it came to dueling. Yet somehow, when Dylan had snidely flicked his wand in her direction shooting two spells, he had found them easily by chance. 

It was no secret that Harriet Potter had experienced terrible headaches while Voldemort has lived, as a part of their shared connection. What hasn’t well know, was that they had stopped completely after Voldemort had died on the Great Hall floor almost two years past. To Harrie and Ron and Hermione, the headaches proved that Voldemort wasn’t going to resurrect himself again. There was nothing left for him to stay connected to this world.

It took a second for the headache to erupt ferociously in her head, crippling her with pain and fear of the Dark Lord’s return. And another second for thick black ropes that wound her in a full body hold—identical to the one that she found herself in the Graveyard in fourth year.

As quickly as she had been tied up, she found herself thrown back into her past. With a golden cup shining brightly against the dark, dark graveyard. A body of the young Cedric, his eyes staring unseeing and his arm still out from where he tried to shield her. 

Fear crept along her neck while the newly bodied Tom Riddle walked towards Lady Potter, his hand raised to her forehead and a hiss of ‘I can touch you now Harrie...’ 

The Hall echoed her screams.  
***

Needless to say, she didn’t pass the exam. She panicked so badly, she almost passed out in front of everyone. Her Professor, created a soundless barrier around her leaving the screams of terror and then for her parents and long dead boyfriend, silent.

There was that much to be thankful for.

Martian calmed her down quickly and efficiently, but the memories was still there, resurfaced in a way they hadn’t for a long time. He pulled her aside from the class, told her not to worry. As a war veteran it was bound to happen. He also frowned looking so similar to Moody that it was disconcerting and told her that he had to inform her next of kin.

Sirius took her home quickly, gave her a shot or three of Firewhiskey and then softly spoke to her about PTSD and what had happened to her in front of her classmates, reassuring Harrie that it was normal for someone her—especially for her.

Harriet Potter drank herself to sleep that night.  
***  
It was Draco that came up with the suggestion actually. Draco, who understood what the PTSD had done to Harrie. It was he that woke her up screaming from nightmares or found her sitting on his couch with a blanket over her, shivering and staring blankly ahead. (He never once complained either, because he understood what it was like) It was him that tried to bring her out from flashbacks and taught her grounding techniques when he could. Of course it was him that noticed when she became attached possessively to the people around her.

It was Hermione who came up with the magic behind it. Something that could be activated without being triggered accidently. It was a deliberate action that could still be done in times of need. (Harrie’s breath quicken immediately with the thought of Ron, Hermione or Draco being trapped like that, unable to use their magic to get out) It would send a Patronus to the connecting pieces, a message with the details of the place where they were and asking for help.

Harrie didn’t want to say it, but it made her relax the tiniest bit knowing that they could call her if they needed it. And she could call them if something ever happened. It made her feel weak and pathetic but it comforted her simultaneously. 

Ron got his watch infused with the wonderfully creative magic. The same watch Molly and Arthur Weasley gave in on his 17th birthday. He wore it always.

Draco wore his family ring on his right ring finger and never took it off after making a promise in front of the courts while he and his family were being investigated after the War. (The promise to change the name around to better things.) It shone a bright blue when it was touched with the magic. 

Hermione picked her engagement ring and Harrie chose a pair of sliver earrings that Molly had gifted her for her previous birthday. Once all four items were woven with magic, it shone a mix of colors. It had created a family like bond between them. 

That night, the Girl Who Lived slept through the night for the first time in months, the comfort of her own makeshift family lulling her into peace enough to close her eyes.  
***

“I can’t do this to you Draco.” She murmured softly into the morning. “I know you aren’t focusing on school as hard as you want too.”

Light flittered in through the window, casting a pale yellow onto the ruffled bed and sheets. The former Death Eater, held his left hand under a pillow and still refused to show the pale scar in public whenever. She understood that, she didn’t like people ogling at her forehead to see the scar Voldemort gave her. The Heir to the Malfoy line, lay in bed with a bare torso, fingers brushing Harrie’s hair ever so lightly.

It wasn’t a recent thing this decision. It was about four nights a week that she would wake screaming or crying. And it was four nights a week that Draco woke with her, calming her down enough that she wouldn’t pass out from her erratic breathing. And while Harrie had a temporary break from her Defense Mastery while she tried to deal with the PTSD, the Slytherin didn’t. It didn’t take a genius to see the dark circles under his pale eyes.

His chest rose and fell. He didn’t need to nod or agree, both of them knew it. 

“We have some pretty shitty timing don’t we?” 

“Of course we do.”

The pale silver eyes met her own sleepless green ones. “Alright then.”

And that was that.  
***

The Minister for Magic bumped into her one day at Diagon Alley, only a month before the anniversary of the end of the War. 

Harrie Potter didn’t want to see him, and didn’t want the question that would be asked. But she knew it was coming. 

“Kingsley.” She greeted, walking past the shelves of Flourish and Blotts, while adjusting her Gryffindor red robes.

“Harriet Potter.” The Minister had aged well, considering the amount of work he had put into the Ministry to reform it from the last two Wizarding wars in the past two years alone. He stood alone in the bookshop, holding himself with an air of power that he had worked hard to get.

“I was wondering, if at the memorial at Hogwarts—”

She cut him off. “If I would speak to the public.” She smiled a small grin. “Of course.”

The former Auror sigh a breath of relief. “You are a lifesaver, Lady Potter. Do you need any seats reserved?”

The last Potter shook her head, dark raven hair flying everywhere. “Everyone will already be there that I would ask.”

“Not even Mr Malfoy?” Shacklebolt asked, a question in his eyes.

Merlin, she thought, how the hell everyone can read me so well. 

“He won’t be there with me. Our relationship ended a little while ago.” Harrie ignored the look he sent her way and the bid the Minister a good day as she left the bookshop.  
***

There were reporters outside her door on May 2nd. It wasn’t even 10am and Harrie Potter had notepads with Quick Quills shoved in her face. It was the day of the Battle of Hogwarts- two years had gone past. Today was for the dead and the battle fought, not for idle gossip about the Woman Who Conquered. She stood outside the house at Grimmauld with a green dress and a black coat that reached her calves, and she regretted her choice already.

Not today. Please not today.

“Lady Potter. How do you feel about today’s anniversary?” A man asked, with receding sliver hair.

“Will you be at the Ceremony today at Hogwarts?” It was the reporter from the Prophet, her blond hair swishing around her shoulder. She was one that never spoke a bad word about Harrie, and she was so grateful for it today of all days.

The young woman turned around looking for Rita Skeeter, who was lurking behind the scenes when Harrie was surrounded by media and reporters. She found her, standing back slightly for the other 10 but with a slight smirk on her lips. 

“Do you take any responsibly for what happened at the Battle, Harrie Potter?” a voice cut though harshly. 

Oh my god. 

Everyone fell quite in anticipation of her answer. Harrie’s breathing quicken, her hand tightened on her wand slightly and she felt like she was going to throw up. She opened her dry mouth and wished to shout at Skeeter. 

Of course it’s my fault. I brought the fight to them. To a school with children!

“Harrie!” Ron’s voice broke through the roaring in her head, and she looked down the path to see both him and Hermione walking towards her. Harrie’s breath caught in her throat. At a single glance, the red haired man started jogging over to her and his fiancée strolled over to Rita Skeeter and pulled out her wand.

“Bloody hell. We were meant to be early.” Ron muttered as he reached her, pulling on her arm away from the people in the street in front of Grimmauld. 

Hermione’s magic cast around them, a shielding them transparently from sound of the others around them. Harrie didn’t have to look around to see what was happening and how livid her friend was. Her family. This happened every occasion that had to do with the War and the part she played in it. It was after the first time (which was Draco and the Malfoy’s being pardoned) that brought reporters to her that Ron and Hermione had starting showing up and stepping up. So did Ginny but it was after her almost attacking Skeeter that she stopped coming. 

Was it your fault, Harrie? Are you the reason those people died? Fred. Colin. Remus. Tonks. Lavender. The other 50? It was all because of you. You are the reason they died. And it was only luck that saved so many of them.

“C’mon. Listen to my voice. Pull away from your thoughts Harrie.” Ron soothingly said, his arm a comfort around her. 

She wiped away the stubborn tears falling from her face, setting her jaw and standing up straighter. She sent Ron a soft smile as a thanks. 

“Let’s just go.”

While it was Harrie Potter that Skeeter had overwhelmed, it was Lady Potter that turned around and cast her own furious wind that blew papers from people’s hands and clothes open. It was the power that she didn’t show often and earnt her the feared title of the Woman Who Conquered. This was the power they had beaten Voldemort two years to the date.

Hermione walked over to her, and grabbed both her and Ron’s hands. She wore normal muggle clothing that a professional business woman would wear. She looked completely in her element while Ron stood around with his hands pushed into his pants looking slightly bare without his robes on. 

It was a bitter parallel when they Disapparited away from the spot together, as a Trio.

***  
She stood next to Sirius, with Teddy in her arms in front of the memorable built in the Courtyard at Hogwarts. She stood still, staring at the names that were the dead. Staring at two names in particular, that started to blurry together through unshed tears.

It wasn’t lost on her as she held her godson in her arms that he echoed her own story. A child orphaned at the end of the War with Voldemort. It was a saving grace that Teddy would never had a destiny as bloody as her own.

Her own godfather stood emotionless, but he still wore his trademark leather jacket. She had asked him once why he wore it so often when it came to dates like these- The Battle of Hogwarts, Halloween, the day he was officially freed from Azkaban, and the Battle at the Ministry- and he just looked blankly ahead, muttering ‘Marauders’ before he zoned out from a while lost in his memories. 

He moved suddenly, turning his body towards her and the child in her arms. Sirius smiled a tiny little grin at Teddy, ruffling up the black hair (to match Harrie’s) before it turned the same shade as Sirius’s top. The little boy giggled, and made grabby hands at the blue shirt. 

“You look nice with that color, little man.” The elder man threw an arm around them both, holding the closest pieces of his friend as near as his heart as he could manage.

Neither adult spoke. What was there to say? On the place on a where she had fought for not only her life but her family’s, on the day it happened. The echoes of Sirius’s own screams when he thought her dead could still be heard in her head when Harrie had an awful day mentally. She knew that her godfather went through days like that too. 

Instead, Lady Potter and Lord Black stood in the courtyard with names scattered around the perimeter, listening to others weep over loved ones long gone. They mourned in silence and threatening to break apart under grief. It was Teddy Lupin they held strong for- because he needed them. 

He was another chance for Sirius Black- to right the wrongs of the past and keep his promise to be godfather of Remus’s child. 

For Harrie, her godson was proof of everything she fought for two years beforehand to the date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment if you want, i would love to hear from you all!  
> Thanks for reading the chapter!


	3. I don't have another choice.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The little infant he had once vowed to protect was a teenager relaxed in death a way she never knew in life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken so long, but I wasn't until like a week ago that i started writing this chapter, and we have a new point of view in this. 
> 
> Hopefully the next chapter wont take so long. 
> 
> Enjoy!

 

The Hall was silent as The Woman Who Conquered stood up and walked away from the two most influential people in Magical Britain- Headmistress Minerva McGonagall and Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt- and stood on the raise platform and spoke.

“It doesn’t escape my knowledge that I stand up here today because I made the choice to come to Hogwarts two years. It doesn’t escape me that I am alive because some aren’t. This is something that I am painfully aware of, and I apologize immensely to those affected. “

The Woman Who Conquered swallows harshly, trying to push down the hysteria rising in her throat as she speaks. Kingsley had her sit up the front with himself and McGonagall, in front of everyone who is attending the service at Hogwarts. Time got away from her as she breathed deeply and tried to resist the urge to run away from the stares she got. It wasn’t until Kingsley turned around to look at her, and Headmistress McGonagall touched her hand softly that Harrie had to speak. She didn't pay attention to any of the opening speech.

                “Although, if the final battle was fought somewhere else perhaps there would have been a different result. The only thing I am sure of, is that when I asked for help, Hogwarts and everyone inside the castle responded. This is something that cannot be forgotten.” She peered down at the front row where Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville sat to see their faces smiling encouraging back at her.

The members of the Order all sat together –members less than a year ago with the passing of Elphias Doge- each with bands over their left arms for the fallen members. They took up little room with many members dead, but students of Hogwarts stared with a look in their eyes that showed nothing but wonder. These were veterans of two wars with Voldemort and they had survived them both. The Order was only outshone by Dumbledore's Army- the younger students watching in awe at the people only a little older than themselves.

“Today we remember what actually happened here, on these grounds, in this school. We remember it as it was and we don’t make it out to be prettier than it appeared. Good people were lost that day when they entered the battlefield. One thing everyone who survived has in common is that we left Hogwarts differently than when we came.”

Someone barked out a harsh laugh at this. _It sounds like George Weasley_.

“We remember the Fallen Fifty, the ones that lost their lives in order for the rest of us to have a chance of making the world a better place.” Harrie wipes her hands on her green dress and then looks over to where she can see Teddy’s flash of still-blue hair. She feels it in her stomach the nerves and the anxiety, but the child helps sooth it for a moment. 

“No one forgets this. Everyone who fought are likely to be called heroes for what they did, but we are survivors. The real heroes are the ones that gave up everything. We are survivors from the War, but the Fallen Fifty are heroes who did the one thing that you couldn’t take back. They gave up everything. They are the reason that we are here today. “

_Not for me. Never for me. Don't take away from what they did by comparing them for me_

“Not to brag about the outcome of the war or what we stopped, what we have achieved. We are here to show the people who lost their lives here, that we can move on from what happened and that we will not forget them or the sacrifice they made.”

How much courage does it take for her to look at the people she knows- knowing that she will see their faces wet with tears. More than she has anyhow. She doesn’t dare look over at the bunch of red heads sitting together knowing that Percy will still be as torn up as he was ever since Fred’s death and George will be mourning as deeply. Molly with her kind face shattered with tears and sorrow over a child who missed out on life.

She can’t look just yet. Harrie still has a speech to get on with and won’t be able to with tears streaming down her face.

“We would not have been able to stop Voldemort without each and every single one of the Fallen.”

All the staff of Hogwarts raise their wands, and cast the spell. Colours of blue, red, green and yellow are shot over the entire Hall forming a name of the Fallen Fifty.

_Fred Wealsey. Colin Creevey. Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin. Remus Lupin. Lavender Brown. All clumped in red, all together._

_Severus Snape. Glowing in green one of few with that colour but shinning nonetheless._

                “It wouldn’t have been possible for any of it without the help each fighter who came to Hogwarts with their wands raised in their hands. It wouldn’t have been possible for everyone who resisted or who fought or who then cleaned up the mess.”

Every member of the Order and the DA stood up now, raised their wands high and cast the same spell, this time in a muted grey colour. Harrie joined in on this, her spell hitting the empty spot near Snape’s name with her own, with Dobby and with Kreacher. Everyone who did something had their name cast around the room. It filled quickly, showing the help that was received and the amount of lives that risked to fight.

It was a small and honest part of her brain that asked Harrie how there hadn’t been more deaths from this number.

After the last of the spells were done, Harrie continued softly.

“So I thank you all personally, for the effect we collectively did so we could stop Voldemort. It wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. I would now like us to have a moment of silence to remember the day and the dead.”

She turned away from the front of the stage, with her mask of the Woman Who Conquered slipping from her face instantly.  No one witnessed it though, each person caught up in the memories of the Battle of Hogwarts. Her own were pushed towards the Fallen rather than the actually fighting.

_In the silence of her head Lady Potter could hear the laugh of Fred Weasley as he pulled a prank on someone unsuspecting in the Gryffindor Common Room. She could still see his smile broadly across his whole face, something that was different from George._

Harrie sat down and scanned the room like she did every time she was in a room. Her eyes fell on the spot where the bodies had been two years past, now covered with a bunch of first and second year students. The irony didn’t escape her- the spot that once held the dead was now full of new life. Undamaged life.

 Harrie closed her eyes and she was flooded with images.

_Remus Lupin with his elderly patterned cardigan in Third Year and then again on the night Dumbledore died with a smirking Tonks under his arm with her hair bright pink. She remembered the night that Remus had asked her to be Teddy’s godmother and the photo of mother and son._

_Colin Creevey in Second Year, asking for an autograph and following her around with a camera. Again in Fifth Year as he held strong against her own Stupify charm in the DA._

_Harrie’s memories turned dark then, with the images flashing from the Battle. The screams of Ron and Percy as Fred lay dead in amounts the rumble. Her own half muted sobs as she watched Colin Creevey being carried by Oliver Wood into the Great Hall, with blood coating his hair and eyes staring unseeing. Remus’s outflung hand reaching towards his wife, and Dora’s hand matching with a scream frozen on her face. Lavender Brown flashed into the picture, with blood running down her throat and a grinning Greyback over her small and torn body._

Her eyes flung open with a small gasp, and Kingsley was talking once more. The room remained silent apart from the small sniffling sounds heard from the crowd. The Minster stood with his dark robes billowing out from his arms with an aura of power pulsing off him. Harrie briefly wondered if she radiating that power when she spoke.

“-announcement that will be controversial. This will affect many of you. After almost a year of discussions, many discussions with the high ranking members of both Magical Britain and Magical Europe we have come to this decision until the magical folk reach a point that it isn’t needed any further.

“I am talking about a Marriage Law that will be magically binding.”

Lady Potter felt her breath catch in her throat, questions on the tip of her tongue. She could barely hear the sound herself after the roar of protest that everyone had let out.

“What in _Merlin’s left sagging-_ ” Goddamn _it Ginny, shut up!_ Harrie thought to herself.

 Minerva McGonagall held her hands into her lap, looking ahead with a face that Harrie had often been of the receiving side of. The Headmistress looked over her shoulder, eyes meeting her own emerald ones and shook her head minimally.

It was the first sign of what has to happen. Harrie could feel the blood pumping harder in her body, could feel the panic rising.

“This law, and it will be a law, will be made up of witches and wizards in Britain from the age of 18 to 45, which will have no exceptions. Harriet Potter, the Woman Who Conquered, will be a witch involved in this setting the example.”

As soon as her name was mentioned, she could _feel_ the eyes land on her. Harrie covered her mouth with her hand and jerked forward the tiniest bit. Her hands tightened on her dress, palms sweating profusely.

This time, Ginny actually stood up from the front row, her pixie cut hair looking like a bundle of flames on the top of her head.

“Kinglsey- what the bloody _hell_?”

_I have been used by the Ministry before without my consent and again with it, each time by a man who thought he was doing the right thing. Each time with a man who ended up fucking up his job._

The Minister just held a thin black wand to his throat and magnified his voice. He didn’t stop talking over the murmuring the crowd produced.

“Magical Britain has lost close to 40% of its population during the past twenty years. Families that were once strong and proud are now completely dead and due to Voldemort, the Muggle-born population has dropped as well. We need to do something and until we can raise that percent to something what it once was this law with remain intact.”

Kingsley stepped off the raised stage and walked closer to the front row. Harrie could see Ginny cross her arms and stare up at him with blunt eyes, she could also see Ron holding Hermione’s arm as if to hold her back. Neville on the other hand, along with Luna Lovegood had put a hand over Ginny’s freckly shoulder to keep her sitting.

“Two Civil Wars have occurred in the last three decades. We have had causalities from each side, regardless of who they fought for. Each side lost massive amounts of numbers. This has now happened twice and each time have been devastating with the total of deaths.

“We have reached a place in our population, that if we don’t take the necessary steps, the magical side of Britain will start dying off. “

Kingsley’s cleared his throat and shot a look back at Harrie quickly. A sad look flashed in his eyes and his mouth dropped the smallest part. He nodded his head once before turning around to the stunned crowd.

“My hands are tied in this matter. Owls will be sent to those involved within the week. Please,” he asked softly “make this as painless as possible.”

 

***

 

_He could feel the blood pounding in his ears and in his veins. Everything was heightened in that moment and things were muted with adrenaline. His body didn’t scream complaints at him as he ran along the broken courtyard, two opposing sides facing each other. The cut on his forehead wasn’t noticeable until he felt the dripping of blood._

_He could feel the magic in his body- a way he hadn’t in years. He could feel the power he could possess under his skin, trying to claw its way out like a living thing. He felt invincible even though he knew otherwise. The bodies on the ground_ showed _otherwise._

_Stones and broken bricks flew up in the air around him- a spell that had missed causing the debris. It didn’t take a genius to work out who it was firing at him. Only one person could ever match that laugh filled of madness and the voice of hate. Bellatrix- little Bella, still innocent with childhood in his memories- was following him. She laughed the same way she did in Azkaban too._

For James. Lily. Harrie. Remus and Dora. For Regulus. For Teddy- now an orphan of this War. (An echo of what happened so long ago) For me and the years that were stolen.

 

_Emotions were muted in a battle if felt at all. He knew it ever since he was 17 and running from his parents’ house. He sat down at the Potter’s, a blanket around him and people -his real family- surrounding him and he couldn’t feel a thing. Two days later and the magnitude of what his parents had done and what Regulus had done had settled around him with a smack to the face. But today he could feel a fist grasping his empty and cracked heart even through the battle focus._

Why do they all leave me?

Why can’t I leave?

 Why do I have to deal with the pieces?

 Why am I left alone… again?

 

_In the back of his mind he knew it wouldn’t be good. But it didn’t matter._

 

_Remus fell to Dolohov, almost peacefully embracing death._

_Tonks- my god, young Dora- screamed as Bella got her. Screaming for Teddy and the life she would miss or maybe Remus who was lying dead in front of her._

_Harrie just left. Voldemort spoke, and then she was just… gone. She walked into that forest knowing she wouldn’t return._

_The Dark side had walked slowly back from said forest and people gathered around from both sides. Everyone with a wound or with blood somewhere on their person. And then he saw her, the black hair that came from her grandmother, spilling over Hagrid’s arms like ink._

_The little infant he had once vowed to protect was a teenager relaxed in death a way she never knew in life._

_He screamed with the others. Some cried for the Girl Who Lived, others for the chance of a free life. But it was only a handful that really knew her that mourned Harrie._

 

_He was running again- cutting back to where he was before- Bellatrix still chasing after him. From the Courtyard, he entered the Hall ready to make his last stand. His goddaughter had thrown herself out of Hagrid’s arms and ran, the Dark Lord behind her._

_He could see children- that’s what they were, children- running in all directions with their Hogwarts robes cut and ruined. Yet they held their wands high and didn’t hesitate to run into the battle around them._

_Hermione and the Weasley girl flanked alongside him, blasting a Death Eater ten meters with the Alarte Ascendare Charm. Other Weasley’s could be seen running and fighting- Molly on a war path to his cousin, Arthur standing over his son’s body with the other twin protecting what they had left of the dead brother. He couldn't look at that for long, the physical pain in his stomach was too much at the awfully familiar sight._

_A blonde teenage tripped in front of him but kept spouting curses and hexes from her lips. He had seen her before at the house of the eldest Weasley after Harrie and the others had escaped from Voldemort._ (Luna- his mind provided _) Lifting a hand to help raise her back up, they covered each other’s back in a way that could only be done in desperate times._

 _Dolohov appeared- running out of the Hall to flee from the battle. An anger bubbled up inside of him and-_ this is Remus’s killer what are you doing Black? _– He shot a Curse that was the worse he could remember Moody once telling him. While it wasn’t an Unforgivable it should have been._

_A rage as endless as the sea over took him, watching the Death Eater slowly die._

It needs to be more than this.

He needs to die screaming, like Dora did.

He needs to feel the pain I do now after I lost my best friend once more.

_This time it was an Unforgivable that fell from his mouth. It took a few moments til the red in his ledger grew by one. The world was free of a Death Eater._

_The scene blurred again, this time it was Harrie standing with her hand grasping the wand of Voldemort in one hand raised above her head, her own wand in the other._

_He could see her standing there so clearly- without a single thing forgotten. It was ingrained into his head like the smile of James, the fiery snark of Lily, Remus’s laugh after the first Transformation he had friends with and the soft smile of his younger brother before everything turned to shit._

_It was why she got the name the Woman Who Conquered. She stood over Voldemort, two wands in her hand. Her jeans were ripped in multiple places, blood stains on her thigh and on her shin. Dirt and mud were smudged everywhere on her body and clothing. Her hands were brown with it, her face with streaks on the left side of her face. The plain top that she wore into the battle was now torn with a chunk missing for her abdomen and covered in handprints of what could have been more blood. Her arms were littered with cuts and burns._

_She looked a mess but her eyes were the thing that drew him in from across that room. The green emerald eyes had come from Lily held something he had never seen from the dead woman. Her daughter’s eyes were lit with a wildness in them that turned the colour into a wildfire. It radiated power and magic and strength. It leaked the power and wit that it had taken to beat over the darkest wizard the world had ever seen._

_She looked like an avenging demon or a wronged angel._

_Sirius never could decide_

 

***

 

All of the reporters had left Grimmauld by the time Hermione and Harrie had arrived. They had better things to write about today- the Marriage Law and what it detailed rather than how the Saviour looked after a day of grieving and sorrow.

Both women walked into the house with little to say. Hermione was absolutely livid, and Harrie was feeling similar but also resigned.

_What does it matter now? Everyone knows. You can’t escape it._

The Head of the Potter House, flicked her fingers towards the Floo fireplace before it shot up with flames full of heat. It cast odd shadows on the lounge room (one of the few rooms Harrie used in the house) and helped light the room up before Hermione walked over the light switch on turn it on.

“This is unbelievable.” The muggle-born spoke, her voice raising almost instantly. She didn’t sit down but started pacing in front of the fire. “I can’t believe Kinglsey would just throw you under the bus like that!”

Harrie could feel the Black Wards shaking slightly as someone entered the house. While she knew logically that it had to be someone she knew, but it didn’t stop her from zoning out from Hermione and reaching for her Holly wand while slightly moving to face the doorway.

Footsteps came closer and louder. Harrie tightened her grip on her wand, a plan forming in her head. The first step in her Mastery put into practice.

_Protect Hermione until she has her wand out. Stun them unconscious, tie them up. Call –_

Ron walked in with a smile, and the Chosen One relaxed immediately.

‘The Smartest Witch of the Age’ turned around to face her fiancé and continued her rant to them both.

“This is exactly what I am trying to do at the Ministry. It’s my job to try and fix god awful laws like this that are oppressive and _he puts more on them in place_. This is what lead the Ministry to corruption the first two times and let Voldemort into power. The egoistical laws that favoured pureblood Lords and all this _crap_ \--”

Harrie cut her off and ran her hands through her hair. “’Mione. What does this even matter-?”

“Are you serious right now?” Ron asked, his voice rising higher than his normal pitch.

Green eyes scanned around the room and the two people that stood like a team facing her. She shrunk down in her seat slightly.

“You are being forced to marry- to breed like an animal- and you don’t even get a choice it the matter!” Hermione yelled.

Ron joined in, his own voice raising. “What the hell is wrong with you that you don’t see the issue with this?”

“You can’t be accepting of this Harrie-”

“Kingsley should have told us!”

“-you are just getting orders like a solider!” (Hermione played on Harrie’s fear of becoming a solider, someone who just obeys. It hadn’t been the first time either.)

 “How are you okay with this?” Harrie snapped a little after Ron spoke.

“I’M NOT OKAY WITH THIS!” The Lady stood up and crossed her arms over her body. “But I’m used to it.” What had started out as yelling ended with a soft pleading in her voice.

She turned looked at the other two- the closest people in her life. The ones that had been through everything with her and Harrie felt a pang of regret in her stomach. Hermione looked on fearlessly, still flushed with anger and Ron just raised an eyebrow as he put his hand in his pocket.

 _His wands is in it_. Harrie realised dully. The thought sunk in, and she deflated. She knew it was the training with the Aurors and everything he had to learn with the War but it still stung to know that Ron was seeing her as a threat.

“I’ve had everything decided for me. Before I got this scar, people decided my future.” She touched the faded lightning bolt with her fingertips. “I am not okay with this in the slightest because it was one of the things I had control over but Kingsley announced my name publicly. I can’t get out of it now because he made me the face of it. Don’t you get that?”

After that, they all sat down and didn’t speak. Harrie had her legs thrown over Hermione. Ron held an arm over his fiancées shoulders. It was a common sight after the War, all of them close together with a cautious look around their surroundings.

“Maybe you can marry George, I’m sure that he wouldn’t care. Besides we can always say that it was a love affair you had when you were with Draco, Harrie. The _Prophet_ would eat it up.” Ron said, his voice colouring with humour.

Harrie let a laugh. Hermione looked shocked. “No one would believe that, Ronald.”

“It would be like marrying my brother, I have to veto it.”

“Mum would finally be happy, you know. Having the Girl Who Lives a part of the family officially.” Ron rolled his eyes. “That and the fact she might have a grandchild who doesn’t have red hair.”

“Oh Merlin. Harriet Lily _Weasley_. Just for that fact I have to say no.”

Hermione shoved Harrie’s pale legs off her lap before she shot Harrie a look of disbelief.

_I don’t know if that’s because I’m making a joke or because she is going to be a Weasley._

“Be serious for a moment. What are you going do about this–” Hermione waved her hand around uselessly for a moment while she tried to find a suitable idea. “–issue?”

The famed green eyes looked down at her lap staring at the dress that matched. Harrie pursed her lips slightly before she looked up and met brown eyes staring intently at her.

She shrugged her shoulders gently. “I don’t know. I have to go with it. I don’t have another option

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chuck us a comment and a kudos if you enjoyed it.   
> i would love to hear from you all.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment or kudos! I do want to hear some feedback from you all! If you have any questions, please ask and I’ll try to answer it as best as I can
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